A vintage photo studio

 

I met the two brothers, Liew Ah Lek also known as Alex, and his brother, Liew Kok Choy, who operate the Johore Heng Photo Studio located at No. 61-A (upstairs!) on Jalan Ibrahim in the heart of Johor Baru’s heritage quarter and published a piece titled, Johor through Liew’s lens of history.

 

A group shot captured inside the
Johore Heng Photo Studio in January 2024

It was dated 7 December 2010, a cover and centrespread story published in Johor Streets, a pull-out section of The New Straits Times.

 

Since then, the newsprint pages of this publication were postered on the wall of the photo studio next to other Chinese newspaper publications that featured this photo studio.

 

A distinctive feature of this photo studio was that the walls along the staircase as well as the walls of the lobby upstairs were covered with a collection of valuable, vintage photographs of Johor and members of the Johor royal family through generations of Johor history.

 

In 2018, while I was compiling stories for the contents of My Johor Stories 2: Interesting Places and Inspirational People, a version of this story on the Johore Heng Photo Studio was also featured among the Heritage Traders who are still doing the businesses inherited from their forefathers.

 

My story postered on the wall 
inside Johore Heng Photo Studio

Readers who are familiar with this photo studio, will know that the Johore Heng Photo Studio was one of the few professional photography shops that was opened in Johor Baru since the early 1900s.

 

Johor was then was spelled with an “e” to read as “Johore” and the business was named after its original owner, Heng Kok Wee.

 

Heng’s photographer, Liew Wee Peng – the father of the Liew brothers – later took over the business and the brothers inherited the business from their father.

 

For the My Johor Stories in Downtown Johor Baru project in early 2023, I arranged four Heritage Walks through the city’s heritage quarter. Each of the four Walks was planned in a different theme with the second one that featured our heritage traders.

 

I was keen to let participants have an experience of the vintage Johore Heng Photo Studio among other heritage traders in the city who were still doing the businesses that were started by their forefathers.

 

The downstairs entrance to 
Johore Heng Photo Studio

In January 2023, Tengku Tarmizi Bin Tengku Aziz, his wife and two young children were among the participants in my Heritage Walk. Incidentally, Tengku Tarmizi (TT) is the Librarian of the Sultan Ismail Library at Jalan Datin Halimah.

 

His Walk experience with me left such a positive impression that TT also arranged to join the next Heritage Walk in February 2023 which included a visit to the Johore Heng Photo Studio.

 

TT so enjoyed his My Johor Stories in Downtown JB experience and was so impressed with the valuable collection of old photos in this vintage photo studio that he shared it with his boss, the Datuk Bandar or Johor Baru City Mayor, Dato’ Haji Mohd Noorazam Dato Haji Osman.

 

In fact, he brought the Datuk Bandar to Johore Heng Photo Studio for a first-hand experience of this charming vintage photo studio in the city’s heritage quarter.

 

This vintage photo studio once
boasted of an air-conditioned section

Then in December 2023, I was happy to include the Johore Heng Photo Studio into the itinerary of my Heritage Walk because I knew that a vintage photo studio such as this, would be an eye-opening destination for the participants.

 

However, on the day of this Heritage Walk, I was deeply disappointed to see that this vintage photo studio was closed.

 

When I shared this disappointment with TT, I was saddened to hear that he found out that the Johore Heng Photo Studio was permanently closed.

 

He also told me that the studio’s valuable collection of old photos was relocated to Galeri Sejarah Johor, a gallery for Johor historical artefacts run by avid collector, Mohd Fariz Johari, located at the KOMTAR JBCC Mall.

 

I was pleased that the photo studio was still open
in January 2024 for this group to experience it

While I was aware that the studio’s closure was possible because the Liew brothers were advancing in age and they may no longer wish to continue with the business, I was still sorry that we will no longer have the privilege to experience such a vintage photo studio in our city.

 

Later on, when my friends told me that they saw the photo studio was opened just the day before, I was hopeful that its doors were momentarily shut that day when I was downtown and that this photo studio was not (yet!) permanently closed.

 

So when I was planning my Heritage Walk for January 2024, I was apprehensive about including the photo studio into my itinerary, lest I will be disappointed again.

 

A collection of formal wedding
photos and portrait photos

On the day of this Heritage Walk, my fingers were crossed as I walked down Jalan Trus towards Jalan Ibrahim – eager to see if the photo studio was opened – and only uncrossed my fingers when I saw that the photo studio was indeed, opened.

 

It was comforting to see the familiar figure of Kok Choy seated at the downstairs entrance to the photo studio but when I arrived and looked closer, I noticed that most of the vintage photos that used to adorn the walls of the staircase and upstairs lobby, were removed.

 

I told the participants to make the most of this visit as they may be among the last to have the privilege of such an experience because this photo studio will soon be closed for good.

 

I reminded them that in the age before the invention of telephones with built-in cameras, not every one could afford to own their own camera nor had the skills to operate a good camera.

 

A kiosk equipped with powder and
comb, songkok, neckties, blazer or
jacket to be properly dressed for photos

So the photo studio used to be an important part of life to mark major milestones of achievement in families or for people who kept photos as precious mementoes.

 

Inside the studio, there was a collection of formal studio shots of wedding couples that reminded us that many couples chose to capture photo mementoes of their wedding to frame up for display in their marital home.

 

In this modern era, wedding photography has been taken to new heights by creative teams who not only dress and style the wedding couple, they also arrange photo destinations – both local and abroad – to capture exciting outdoor shots to compile into an album as well as to present in videos shown during the wedding banquet.

 

Now everyone – from kids to grandfathers – have their own sophisticated smartphones with built-in cameras and know how to use the phone’s smart features to compose and create clever shots, reels and videos, to post on social media.

 

My Johor Stories in Downtown Johor Baru
visit to the photo studio in February 2023

Modern wedding packages that included photography at exciting destinations and the invention of good cameras on smartphones, have gradually eliminated the traditional services of photo studios to mark births, graduations and weddings.

 

The photo studio was also an essential part of life because it was where people went to get portrait shots of themselves to apply for passports or visas, bus passes or other similar permits which required visual proof of the holder.

 

These photo requirements varied so the traditional photo studio provided a small kiosk equipped with powder and comb to improve one’s looks as well as songkok, neckties, blazer or jacket to be properly dressed for their official photos.

 

Our Heritage Walk in January 2024,
less photos on the walls of the studio

Now people no longer needed to submit portrait photos of themselves for passport applications because the Immigration Department is equipped with photography equipment to take photos of applicants during the application in the department.

 

Similarly, visas may now be conveniently applied online and applicants will submit digital photos of themselves.

 

With wider use of digital documents in a paperless environment, the services of traditional photo studios are no longer required.

 

Traditional photo studios once provided all these services that we no longer require so it was only a matter of time before the photo studios ceased to be relevant.

 

So it was a privilege to look at the ancient shutter cameras and the décor inside the vintage photo studio, and capture our photo mementoes of this sunset trade.

 

Before we left the studio, I had a word with Kok Choy who confirmed that the Johore Heng Photo Studio will remain open, maybe up to April this year, before they closed permanently.

 

The Chinese character for Double 
Happiness in the photo studio to
capture formal photos with wedding
 couples; a photo memento for this
Korean couple in our January 2024
visit to the vintage photo studio

Then on February 3, I received a message from Ahmad Fadhli Syed Hassan, a fellow author who has a passion to document stories on members of the Johor royal family.

 

He was on a quest to uncover information on the monuments that commemorated the Diamond Jubilee year of the rule of Sultan Sir Ibrahim (topped by a crown) and shared with me a Black & White photo of the other Johor monument (topped by a star and crescent) – the Tanjong Puteri Monument - with two small boys in front.

 

He also shared with me photos of the sites for these two monuments along with a postcard printed with the monument. [This will be for a separate story.]

 

Ahmad Fadhli told me that he just visited the Johore Heng Photo Studio and learnt that it will be closing for good, very soon.

 

I referred to the Black & White photo of the Tanjong Puteri Monument with the two small boys in front and asked Ahmad Fadhli, “Do you know who these boys are?”

 

He replied with, “Tengku Tarmizi told me it’s Mr Heng’s photo.”

 

The two boys in front of the
Tanjong Puteri Monument

In response, I told him that this old photo did indeed come from that vintage photo studio but… I was asking about the two boys.

 

I understand that when Heng passed away, Liew took over the business and maintained the studio’s established name and reputation. When Liew went out on photography assignments, his sons Ah Lek and Kok Choy, often went along and they not only observed how their father captured precious moments on film, they were also the subjects he photographed.

 

In 1964, Ah Lek joined his father to work in the photo studio and younger brother, Kok Choy also joined the business.

 

I asked Ahmad Fadhli if he saw the two brothers at the photo studio when he dropped by to talk to them about those monuments, and he replied, “Yes!”

 

When I told Ahmad Fadhli that the two boys in the old photo with that monument were the Liew brothers, Ah Lek and Kok Choy, his response was an exclamation, “Wahhh!”